‘And will you, can you not credit,’ said Gilbert, nearly inaudibly, ’that I did not act by my free will?  I had no notion that any such thing could befall him, and would never have let them try to silence him, but to shield others.’

’Others!  Yes, Archie Tritton and Algernon Dusautoy!  I know what your free-will is in their hands, and yet I thought you cared for your brother enough to guard him, if not yourself.’

‘If you knew the coercion,’ muttered Gilbert.  ’I protest, as I would to my dying day, that I had no intention of going near the stables when I set out, and would never have consented could I have helped it.’

‘And why could not you help it?’

Gilbert gasped.  ’Tritton brought me a message from Dusautoy, insisting on my meeting him there.  It was too late to take Maurice home, and I could not send him with Archie.  I expected only to exchange a few words at the door.  It was Tritton who took Maurice away to the stables.’

’I hear, but I do not see the compulsion, only the extraordinary weakness that leads you everywhere after those men.’

‘I must tell you, I suppose,’ groaned Gilbert; ’I can bear anything but this.  There’s a miserable money entanglement that lays me under a certain obligation to Dusautoy.’

‘Your father believed you had told him of all your debts,’ she said, in a tone of increased scorn and disappointment.

’I did—­I mean—­Oh!  Mrs. Kendal, believe me, I intended to have told him the utmost farthing—­I thought I had done so—­but this was a thing—­Dusautoy had persuaded me into half consenting to have some wine with him from a cheating Portuguese—­then ordered more than ever I knew of, and the man went and became bankrupt, and sent in a great abominable bill that I no more owned, nor had reason to expect than my horse.’

’So you preferred intriguing with this man to applying openly to your father?’

’It was no doing of mine.  It was forced upon me, and, in fact, the account was mixed up with his.  It was the most evil hour of my life when I consented.  I’ve not had a moment’s peace or happiness since, and it was the promise of the bill receipted that led me to this place.’

’And why was this place chosen for the meeting?  You and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy live only too near one another.’

‘He is not at the Vicarage,’ faltered Gilbert.

Albinia suddenly grew pale with apprehension.  ‘Gilbert,’ she said, ‘there is only one thing that could make this business worse;’ and as she saw his change of countenance, she continued, ’Then it is so, and Lucy is his object.’

’He did not speak, but his face was that of a convicted traitor, and fresh perceptions crowded on her, as she exclaimed, horror struck, ’The ink!  Yes, when you said she was with the Dusautoys!  I understand!  He has been in hiding, he has been here!  And this expedition was to arrange a clandestine meeting between them under your father’s own roof!  You conniving! you who said you would sooner see your sister sold to Legree!’